Bradford Open 2017

The 'Bradford Open' is a large and prestigious art exhibition held at Cartwright Hall, in Bradford, every two years.  Somewhat on the off-chance we entered it three-opens ago in 2013, were successful (and even sold work!  gasp), then had the Difficult Second Album syndrome with the follow up in 2015.  And again we got in, the two of us forming part of the trio of photographers they picked.

We rather felt we didn't have anything to prove therefore for the third attempt, but had some vague ideas.  They seemed to announce things a bit late this year however; we'd both had plans for work to show, then nothing seemed to be advertised for a while so we assumed it wasn't happening and did nowt.  Then it DID get announced, and we had to produce some work pretty flipping quickly...  Having decided that having done photography twice, we'd enter something a bit odder this time, Amy went for a more fine-art approach (as the majority of work entered in the show is more fine art than photography) and I (Ben) would play it a tad safer with photographs. 

Amy would produce three works; a piece with origami birds made from maps, a piece based around those close-ups of minerals/crystals from a few blog-posts ago, and a lino-print.  I would enter three photographs, a long-exposure shot of a waterfall, a long-exposure shot of a firework exploding, and either something from the recent shoots of Pretty Vacant or On The Beach (more on these coming up imminently on the blog).

See, we don't just throw this stuff together, there is some actual testing goes into the work... other glue brands are available.

Frames were more of an issue.  Due to the hilariously late notice we realised that this was on, and fitting it around some real life drama, we were forced to buy Ikea frames... and by God, these have dropped in quality lately.  Still the same low-ish price but you can actually feel the cost-cutting.  Note the strange wooden shapes at the top; home-made cruciform to reinforce the backs of the frame, because...

...mmm, nothing says quality like compressed powdered wood.  Back when we framed "The Home Is..." in 2014/15 you could actually buy proper wooden frames.  None of that in post-Brexit Britain with a collapsing economy.  Scratch this, breathe in, and you can feel the respiratory diseases...

You know you're in for a bad time when they supply special brackets and screws to attach the backboard to the frames to stop the frames warping.  In the event I even had to buy better screws...

Still, we managed to produce, frame and mount the work.

To The Show!

Having dropped the work off (fun in gale-force winds), both of us quite forgot to take any photographs of the work before it went up on the walls.  Fail.  In the end we had three pictures out of the six selected, two by Amy, one by me.

So I (Ben) went on a slightly epic quest to see the work on the wall, having also missed the opening afternoon (with free wine!  Double Fail) for the third time running.  OK so because of the late notice of us finding out about the exhibition we'd booked tickets for the Cosford air show, and so we were actually photographing Spitfires instead of eating canapés and sipping wine, but hey-ho. 

Not that I'm knocking the Northern Powerhouse concept, but I was pretty sure that the first leg of the journey, in a Sixty-year-old carriage hauled by a Hundred-and-something-year-old steam loco would be the most comfortable and pleasant part of the journey...  Ingrow Station above with the Taff Vale locomotive, no.85, arriving... because I was too lazy to walk and had just renewed my railcard.

Comfort, in the style of the old days.  Take note Virgin Trains, the windows line up with the seats...

Arrival in Keighley...

...and photographed running-round whilst waiting for the 'modern' train.

Looks modern, but scary to think this is the most modern passenger train in the area, and is only about half as old as the carriage I travelled in on the 'heritage' railway.  And yes, this connection was because the one I was meant to get was delayed.

Off the train at Frizinghall, and a walk up the hill to the park, bought me to...

...well, the park.  Lister Park, on Manningham Lane.

Then it was up to Cartwright Hall for the show.

Worth mentioning two things.  Firstly, it was only held in one room this year (previously it has been held in two rooms, one at each end of the corridor).  I assume this is for Reasons, probably David Hockney related.  OK that is a generalisation, but then generally most art galleries in the Bradford area seem to have a love of Hockney, and he is due to have a big exhibition here, so he probably bagsied the other room.  (I have slight issues about David Hockney I must declare; not so much for his artwork but simply because he seems to be EVERYWHERE in West Yorkshire.  Just my opinion).

The other thing to note is the high quality of the exhibits.  Mostly fine art, some sculpture, a little bit of photography, but some really, really lovely pieces of art.

Selfishly, but logically given this is our Blog, let's start with our own work.  Amy got her Origami Birds (mounted upside down, whoops, but it still works) and her abstract lino print selected, presented just inside the door.

And I got my Fireworks photo in the opposite corner.  Personally quite happy, as this is an oldy but one I like, and it is nice to see it up in a gallery.

There were a lot of other really good works, so if by some freakish chance another exhibiting artist happens to see this blog, don't take your lack of inclusion as a sight against your ability or honour.  I'm simply going to post a couple of pieces which caught my eye.

"Rock Music Map" by Ian Robinson.  A collage of music memorabilia in a relief map of the UK.  Eye-catching and appeals to my liking of miniature sculpture.

"Conceptual Art Kit" by Lorain Behrens.  Appeals to the cynic in me, and also like the use of 3D printing because I'm a technology nerd.

"Aerial Manouvres" by Beverley Drury.  A simply beautiful, stunning piece of wire sculpture.

So that was that.  Bradford Open 2017.  Done and out... well until the Youth Open, where we get to see if The Childs have benefitted any from our experience as Art/DT Technicians and have absorbed anything we've taught them.  Happily they're good artists anyway, so fingers crossed something will be chosen.

Three times in the Bradford Open then, and really happy we got picked this year.  Even happier given it was a smaller space with fewer artists, so it is a slight boost to our confidence and self-esteem as artists that we got picked in tighter circumstances.  A brief high before the nightmare the rest of the day descended into, but cest la vie.  We'll do a blog post on the pics that didn't get selected at some point as they're going in for other projects/open calls, and might do something else on the other artists in the open too.  However because Amy says this is turning into an essay I'll stop writing now.